ipl-logo

Evaluate Jean Piaget's Theory Of Cognitive Development

996 Words4 Pages

Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was the first psychologist to create a logical study on cognitive development. Piaget suggested that all children were born with the same mental structure, which is genetic and cannot be influenced only evolved. He considered each child as a "mini scientist" taking an active role in their environment and having to discover problem solving skills for themselves. Piaget was interested in the mistakes children make when answering questions that require them to think logically, and because of this he believed that there was a clear difference between the thinking styles of adults and adults. Due to this, most of his research involved observing children including his own. Piaget highlighted the importance of schemas, which …show more content…

However its discontinuous theme of stages can be criticised and other psychologists have found that there was an over-estimation of the ages in the formal operational stage. Keating (1979) found that 40-60% of college students fail at the formal operational tasks, and Dasen (1994) states that only one third of adults ever reach the formal operational stage. The theory of development is further criticised for being misleading and too complex, suggesting that Piaget also under-estimated the age in which a child is able to decentre. Hughes (1975) devised a realistic and relatable study to test ego-centrism in the pre-operational stage, and when the test was based on a common game of "hide and seek" the age in which a child gains this ability drops from 7 years (Piaget's results) to 3 and a half years. Piaget focused on the universality of cognitive development and was more fixated with the biological aspect of development; he failed to recognise how a child's culture and social upbringing could affect cognitive development (Vygotsky 1978.) Piaget used clinical interviews and observations to collect his results, this could therefore be open to researcher bias, as he collected the data alone and it was based on his own subjective interpretations. His theory would therefore be more reliable if it had inter-observer reliability and he worked alongside another researcher checking if their results where

Show More
Related
1318 Words | 6 Pages

During the development of many psychological theories there were many people who made incredibly important contributions to psychology who weren’t initially considered psychologists. Ivan Pavlov and his discoveries in behaviorism and learning in Russia, or Sigmund Freud and his founding of psychoanalysis in Austria. These are some of the most prominent names in psychology who made immense lasting changes to the field of psychology, and I would argue that in some aspects Piaget’s research was just as important as both of these men’s. Piaget began as a genetic epistemologist, where his main interest was learning how one comes to know things. As an epistemologist, Piaget’s study of childhood learning was fundamentally different from anyone’s

Read More
656 Words | 3 Pages

Piaget's theory suggests that children's thinking develops through a series of distinct stages, each characterized by a different way of thinking about the world. This knowledge is crucial for anyone working with children, as it can inform the way we design educational and therapeutic interventions that are developmentally

Read More
895 Words | 4 Pages

Piaget’s theory is based on assisting others until they can help themselves. Piaget goal is to help children learn so that they can become successful as they reach adulthood. Children learn as they experience different things in their environment. This includes playing with toys and using objects that helps them physically. For example, a child who enjoys drawing could

Read More
512 Words | 3 Pages

(Burton, Westen, & Kowalski, 2014, p. 464). Piaget has proposed 4 stages in his theory of cognitive development; the first is sensorimotor stage, pre-operational stage, concrete operational stage and finally, formal operational stage. Mollie and her friends are in the Pre-operational stage of cognitive development. This can be shown as they are in a pre-school

Read More
1035 Words | 5 Pages

Piaget broke away from the behaviourist model prevalent at the time, which had directly linked

Read More
962 Words | 4 Pages

Jean Piaget was a Swiss psychologist who regarded cognitive development as a maturational process (Martin, Carlson & Buskist, 2010). Piaget constructed his conclusions through the observation of his own children and children at his Centre of Genetic Epistemology in Geneva. Piaget observed that children depend on an altered type of thinking when compared to the way in which adults think. A child’s thinking is qualitatively different than an adult’s thinking. Through his study, Piaget found that children of a similar age are inclined to behave in a similar manner and make similar mistakes when problem-solving.

Read More
877 Words | 4 Pages

In this regard, he came up with the view that people inherit two basic tendencies in thinking, namely organization and adaptation. Organization refers to constant arranging experience and information into psychosocial structure. Concerning adaptation, people are born to adjust the environment. One of Piaget’s key views was stages of cognitive development, he divided cognitive development into separate stages as follows: sensorimotor stage, preoperational stage, concrete operational stage, and formal operational stage.

Read More
1499 Words | 6 Pages

One study in particular is where he would observe children of different ages participating in game play, and would periodically stop them to ask the children to explain the rules of the game; this is how Piaget discovered children’s understanding of rules. After completing this study, he had discovered that children go through four different stages in their development of moral understanding and reasoning as they age. These stages are as follows; motor rules, egocentric, incipient cooperation, and genuine cooperation; they go hand-in-hand with his stages of cognitive development as

Read More
1312 Words | 6 Pages

According to Thomas (2005), Piaget 's theory was based upon both the natural maturation of the child and stages, which means the concept of the child’s readiness is paramount; which is when certain topics should be taught. According to Piaget there are certain concepts that should not be taught to a child until he or she has reached the appropriate stage of cognitive development. Secondly, assimilation and accommodation require the child to be actively engaged, because Piaget believed that problem-solving skills can only be discovered by the learner, not taught (pp. 216-9). Furthermore, Piaget conceived the classroom as being student-centered with the teacher as the facilitator, one who: emphasizes the learning process, not the results; guides the lesson; uses collaborative and individual activities, devises meaningful learning problems, and creates tasks suitable for the child’s level of development (Schcolnik, Kol, & Abarbanel, 2016, p.

Read More
2145 Words | 9 Pages

The second substage of Pre-operational stage is known as Intuitive Thought that is between the children of four and seven years old.at this substage, children develop curiosity within them as they try to know everything surrounding them, as they become to the realization that they have a lot of knowledge, but are unaware where they got it from. They tend to each time that they are next to their teachers, parents, relative or anyone who is older than them as their brothers and sisters, questions of How, When and Why. They are able to understand things and even analyses them. They do also perform tasks which earlier they were not able

Read More
1191 Words | 5 Pages

Piaget believed that in order to adapt successively to our changing environment, we are always actively trying to make sense of our experiments. Active learning (organizing by schema): gives us a chance to explore the different ways that objects can be organized depending on the concept used. At 5 years old, children are at the preoperational stage of cognitive development.

Read More
1368 Words | 6 Pages

His greatest strength was his research which has allowed educators, psychologists, and parents to have a greater understanding of a child’s developmental level. According to Lourenco (2012), Piaget believed that children would find the most benefit by working and learning in an educational setting that was at their own level (p. 284). As a result of his research, Piaget encouraged a comprehensive educational system that focused on the understanding of children. Thomas (2005) describe some of the weaknesses of Piaget’s theory, which include the fact that he often underestimated the ability of a child’s intellect.

Read More
625 Words | 3 Pages

One of the most well known theories in cognitive development is Piaget 's theory. The psychologist Jean Piaget theorized that as children 's minds development, they pass through distinct stages marked by transitions in understanding followed by stability. Piaget describes four different stages of development: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operation, and formal operations. Each stage describes the thinking patterns of a child depending on his or her age. In order to compare the thinking processes of a three-year old and a nine-year old using Piaget 's theory, you must compare two sequential stages of cognitive development: preoperational and concrete operations.

Read More
1572 Words | 7 Pages

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development Cognition is a process where different aspects of the mind are working together that lead to knowledge. Piaget’s cognitive development theory is based on stages that children go through as they grow that lead them to actively learn new information. Cognitive change occurs with schemes that children and adults go through to make sense of what is happening around them. The change that occurs is activity based when the child is young and later in life correlates to mental thinking. Piaget’s stages of cognitive development start from birth to adulthood

Read More
755 Words | 4 Pages

The systematic study of cognitive development was first made by Piaget. Piaget’s theory observes and describes children at different ages. His theory is very extensive, which starts from birth through adolescence, and includes concepts of language, scientific reasoning, moral development, and memory. Piaget’s assume that children construct their own knowledge in response to their experiences. Hence children

Read More

More about Evaluate Jean Piaget's Theory Of Cognitive Development

Related Topics

Open Document